Levon Aronian said that due to the situation in Armenia, Nadanian "was not able to display even one-tenth of his playing talent.

"[1] Due to his imaginative attacking style, Nadanian has been described as a "chess artist",[2] a "brilliant eccentric", the "Armenian Tal" and "Kasparov's half-brother".

[3] The sixth chapter of Tibor Karolyi's 2009 book Genius in the Background is devoted to Nadanian.

Nadanian was born on 19 September 1972 in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, which then was part of the Soviet Union, to Sergei and Irina, both hairdressers.

He remembers that in one of these park-battles he played against a mysterious, silent stranger who turned out to be the highly respected chess champion Vladimir Makogonov.

With the beginning of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1988, his family was forced to leave Baku and flee to Armenia.

[40] His United States Chess Federation (USCF) rating, based on nine games from 1998 New York Open, is 2655.

[41] Nadanian has an imaginative and adventurous style of playing, and even his mistakes, according to Tibor Karolyi, "contain elements of creativity".

[42] He likes to create fresh, atypical positions straight from the opening, often employing bizarre maneuvers to achieve his goals.

In particular, Karolyi emphasizes their ability to implement effective ideas on the edge of the board, attributing this to the influence of their common chess "father".

[47] The 2005 World Cup winner Levon Aronian said of Nadanian: "His passion for beauty, his devotion to the romantic chess school has always been inspiring."

Grandmaster Valery Chekhov noted that "along with his positive qualities like very subtle understanding of dynamic positions, very good sense of initiative and quick thinking, Ashot’s play has a few negative facets like weak opening repertoire, bad defence, and the psychological element of the game as well.

While demonstrating his best games and unexpected and spectacular ideas he has carried over the board, Nadanian never tries to convince us that all his novelties are impeccably correct and supplies his readers with the results of an objective analysis.

[51][52] The first variation has been used by many strong GMs such as Viktor Korchnoi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Bu Xiangzhi, Alexander Riazantsev, Walter Browne, Smbat Lputian, Jonathan Rowson, Andrei Kharlov, Bogdan Lalić, Igor Lysyj, while the second has never enjoyed popularity among top-flight players.

[67] After Nadanian graduated from the Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture in 1994, he became a chess trainer.

[75] At the "Full English Breakfast" website (thefeb.com, podcast #7 Part 1), Levon Aronian refers to Nadanian as his friend and second.

Unable to accompany Aronian to the 2011 Wijk aan Zee tournament, they maintained daily contact online.

[76] During the entire month of February 2011, Nadanian, together with a team of five grandmasters—Wang Hao, Movsesian, Sargissian, Pashikian and Melkumyan—held training camp in Tsaghkadzor, helping Aronian to prepare for the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2012 cycle.

[77] At the 2011 Crestbook KC-Conference Aronian noted: "Lots of players are involved in my team, but Ashot Nadanian is absolutely irreplaceable.

"[78] During the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2012 in Wijk aan Zee Aronian referred to Nadanian as his permanent assistant.

[5] One of Nadanian's hobbies along with reading, watching classical piano performances and writing aphorisms[80][81] is chess composition.

[82] Whilst two knights cannot force checkmate against a lone king, they can do so in some exceptional cases when the defender has pawns or other pieces.

In December 2009, ChessBase published three of Nadanian's puzzles on "knights theme", calling him "a hippophile chess composer".

[5] When asked in an interview whether being a father negatively affects his chess career, Nadanian replied, "I do not know, but even if that would be true, I'll never be sorry.

"[5] In the same interview Nadanian said that he has "perfect relations with virtually all Armenian top players", stressing that the closest are Levon Aronian, Gabriel Sargissian, Ara Minasian, Varuzhan Akobian and Andranik Matikozian.

"[5] The game was played between Nadanian (White) and the former Russian champion, Konstantin Sakaev (Black) on the Internet Chess Club server in 2001.

[88] It was annotated by Tibor Karolyi in his Genius in the Background book (2009) and by Lubomir Kavalek in The Washington Post on 4 January 2010:[89] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3.

[89] 1–0[91] In 2012, the US National Master Frederick Rhine submitted this game to Chessgames.com and wrote: "A glorious combination!

"[45] The following game was played between the former member of China's Olympiad team GM Wu Shaobin (White) and Nadanian (Black) at Singapore 2006: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4.

Bb2 a5 Well-known plan in this position, introduced by the IM Dolfi Drimer in 1968,[92] with which Black develops the a8 rook along the sixth rank using the ...Ra8–a6–h6 manoeuvre.